From September 17th to 19th Berlin Airports took part in the 2006 ROUTES Conference in Dubai, the world’s leading airline and airport networking event focused entirely on route de-velopment.
The conference gave Berlin Airports the opportunity to negotiate new flight connections and to present their preparations for the expansion of Schoenefeld Airport to become the capital airport Berlin Brandenburg BBI.

The visit to Dubai ended with a press event on September 19th hosted by the German National Tourist Office, Berlin Tourism and the airports.

In regard to incoming tourism to Germany, The German National Tourist Office is convinced that the UAE is one of the most important future markets. In 2004 Berlin surpassed Rome as the third most popular destination in Europe. It is a “must-visit city” due to the endless possibilities of nightlife, top events and shopping. This year, Germany’s most popular travel destination was voted “Top Summer Party Spot” by the US-American website “Sherman-sTravel.com”. About 6,500 restaurants, cafes and bars, a throbbing nightlife with cinemas, musical theatres, 1,500 events everyday, 180 museums preserving history and art as well as amazing shopping opportunities make the city a mecca for youngsters across the world

The Berlin Airports safeguard the air traffic infrastructure for the Berlin-Brandenburg capital city region with the three airports Schoenefeld, Tegel and Tempelhof. Berlin has never been as well connected to the world as it is today. The Berlin Airports are showing record growth and the market share is 10 %. In addition, Berlin is the largest low-cost location on the conti-nent of Europe. In the summer of 2006, 100 airlines are flying to approximately 150 destina-tions in almost 50 countries. With Qatar Airways’ non-stop flights from Tegel to Doha, visi-tors from the UAE can travel comfortably to Berlin in just under 6 hours.

And the course has been set for the future - in the next few years Schoenefeld Airport will be expanded to become the new capital city airport Berlin Brandenburg International BBI. The official expansion permit and the financing concept have been completed, construction started recently on September 5th. As of 2001, according to the planning, the entire air traffic for the Berlin-Brandenburg region is to be concentrated at the airport in the south of the city. The inner-city airports Tegel and Tempelhof will then be closed.

For BBI an initial capacity of more than 20 million passengers is planned. Depending on the passenger development, the airport can be expanded for up to 40 million passengers. BBI therefore provides the capacity required by the Berlin-Brandenburg region for the coming centuries.
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